Thread: Question about Sydney traffic jams at Pacific Hwy

If you are worried about traffic jams, then Sydney may not be the place for you...

Move to Mebourne instead...

(See if that creates some 'traffic' of its own...)

Melbourne?

Well, I had no choice. The Australian branch of the company whom I'm working for is in Sydney. I reckon that I had preferred Adelaide instead... because getting rid of Madrid traffic jams to engage in Sydney ones is a bit depressing...

The length is similar to the great wall of china in that it can be seen from space! Seriously the traffic is pretty bad during peak times and far worse on the friday arvo's with double that again for any long weekend/ public holiday as 1/2 of sydney seems to head north and (the other half heads my way down south) this can make the peak traffic last as late as 9 or 10 pm if there are any accidents. The other prob. with the area your looking at is the cost of rent. OUCH! But the further north you go the more affordable it becomes so wyong gosford woy woy etc are all reasonable for rent or buy. Any way welcome to Oz

Yes,

When I was in Sydney (a month ago) I made several train-trips to explore the area from Hornsby (bloody expensive) up to Gosford. I really liked the places and landscapes around Gosford, surrounded by water and trees (specially if compared with Madrid).

It will need some weeks to get the 457 visa, in the meantime I'm converting the Defender from LHD to RHD (I have been offered a 40 ft container as part of the relocation package!)

I know both those locations well...

The F3 offramp is a carpark in the mornings. To avoid it you need to have arrived at work by 7.30 or so. And that part of North Ryde can jam up in the evenings if Ryde Road or Epping Road nearby jams up.

Now the good news.

From Berowa / Cowan, you can avoid the F3 by using the old Pacific Highway. You won't save a lot, but anything's better than competing with the Central Coast on that offramp.

Even better, you can get the train. The Epping / Chatswood link opened 12 mths ago (maybe more?) & there are stations at Maq Uni & nearby at Macquarie Park & North Ryde.

Regards
Max P

Thank you, Max,

The office is 4 minutes away from Macquarie Park Station. Unfortunately there is no direct line from Gosford/Woy Woy/Berowra to Macquarie, there is a (short) transfer at Hornsby. I was planning (in my dreams) a 40 min shift by train to the office, and keep the car as a backup.

I was in Oz for two weeks, and I think that you aussies don't realize how beautiful is your country, and how fortunate are you all living there

I would see the bigger problems in time to be Pennant Hills Rd or the Pacific Hwy inbound to Mona Vale Rd.

The quicker exit would be to keep right on the F3 and exit to Pennant Hills Rd. But the Pennant hills Rd will choke up at Pennant Hills shopping centre if you want to go Epping Rd to Macquarie. You could turn off to the Comonara Parkway, but that is a carpark in the morning as it waits at lights to get onto Mona Vale Rd.

The other way is to endure the kilometers of 40Kmh school zones on the Pacific hwy to get to Mona Vale Rd. But you never get to 40Kmh, but it is usually solid from say 7AM to 10AM.
On balance I would go F3, Pennant Hills Rd,Epping Rd. It can take only about 30 Minutes from the exit to Epping Rd or it can take a lot longer if there are dozens of B doubles crowding the road and painfully slow to take off at each set of lights which can cause you to miss that set.
Trial and error will be involved but it isn't fun.
Rail would be more relaxing but it takes over an hour from Gosford to Epping plus waiting plus the trip to Macquarie.
Regards Philip A

Changing trains at Hornsby is no problem. I think you'll find half your carriage will be changing as well

Playing with the trip planner at Welcome to CityRail

for say Berowra shows the trip will be from 39 mins to 47 mins, depending on the time of day. That's not bad for Sydney! Much better than driving.

Regards
Max P